1
If I were younger, I should not be sending you a letter, but should myself take ship and converse with you there; but inasmuch as it so happens that the fruitful period of my life and that of your own affairs have not coincided — since I am already spent with years, and with you it is the high time for action — I shall try to disclose to you my views about the situation as well as I can in the circumstances.
2
I know, to be sure, that when men essay to give advice, it is far preferable that they should come in person rather than send a letter, not only because it is easier to discuss the same matters face to face than to give their views by letter, nor yet because all men give greater credence to the spoken rather than to the written word, since they listen to the former as to practical advice and to the latter as to an artistic compositionIn connection with this, Isoc. 5.25-26 should be read.;
